The doors are now in and the building work is complete. LC showed us the work that had been done on the changing room area and talked us through the proposed work on the storage units on the current stage, which would then also free up the art materials cupboard to store the halls tables etc. This work would be done by Paul and Darren.

The next element of the project was to provide the equipment to make the halls functional for performances and in particular the school play. Fundraising would continue through the year to pay for these items. The main items needed are:

lighting rig and lights

additional speakers

stage blocks

new blinds and stage blacks

The School have come up with solutions for three of these which work out as follows:

lights £1916

sound £1468 (plus extra for mounting and cabling which hasn’t been calculated)

stage £2840

TOTAL £6224 (all ex VAT)

Other than a need to discuss the sound solution further, to make sure that it would make the halls attractive as a replacement for for eg the downstairs space at the Hornsey Town Hall if as expected that went out of use due to redevelopment, the School’s recommendations were accepted.

Further work needed to be done with the Y6 teachers to work out what was required in the way of stage blackout material and blinds. The Scrap Project often had bolts of suitable material and that option would be investigated alongside stage equipment manufacturers.

The room had been measured up and would fit 7 bays of shelves in the main room and would still have space for the 2 clothes rails. The price for this is £909 ex VAT. This purchase was approved.

Other expenditure

Fireworks – The large double gazebo used for Fireworks has reached the end of its life so a new one was needed for Fireworks. NE has found a 6m x 3m waterproof pop up one from www.garden-camping.com that is £150. This purchase is revenue neutral as we made about £150 hiring out the BBQ and other equipment last year. The purchase was approved.

Play – The proposal to provide year groups with a fund for costumes for the play would be revisited when it became clear what the play was and what kinds of costumes were required which would become obvious in the next couple of weeks.

Upcoming projects

LC said that after the Halls Project and the other associated items had been completed the School would like CF to focus fundraising on the West Side grounds and in particular the Y5 & Y6 Playground, the main bank, and the Millennium Garden. This would be discussed further at the next meeting when we could also consider how CF’s fundraising could tie in with other fundraising ideas emerging from LC’s recent discussions with parents and other stakeholders on funding.

Upcoming Events

Reception Parents Coffee Morning – Friday 7 October

Halloween Disco – Y3-Y6 – Wednesday 19 October

AGM – currently scheduled for mid-October but to try and get more interest it was decided to move this to November – revised date is Tuesday 15 November.

Potential new event – this could celebrate the Halls Project and be themed round the play. It was agreed this would be discussed further when the play was revealed. There was an option for this to replace the Advent Fair if Y1 were keen.

New forms of communication to encourage more participation

There was still an issue of awareness in relation to CF and what it did even with all the available channels of reps, the Facebook group and website, posters, emails from School etc. being used regularly. Reception Parents were all again provided with a flyer detailing what CF is and also had details on reps and events with their CF funded book bags but perhaps this was too much of an onslaught of information too early. The leaflet info was all on the website as well. It was agreed that the message needed constant reinforcement from a number of channels – emails, face to face, leaflets, making it clear that CF is the PSA and not a separate body, perhaps a banner at events and any time the CF committee were out in force. More work also needed to be done on the reps side including encouraging reps to join the committee or send a representative of their year group along and a reps night. LC could also use reps as a focus group for ideas about the school. The new event reps email account (coleridgefamilieseventreps@gmail.com) and Event Notes Dropbox could be used further. NM agreed to assist AJ on coordination to get things going this term.

Next meetings:

A meeting to plan the AGM before half term date to be confirmed. AGM 15 November